Correlative Object Ontology: Pragmatism and the Objects of Interpretation

Abstract

This dissertation aims to undermine the prevalent dichotomy of facts and values in the study of literature. For this purpose, the dissertation starts with a demonstration of the subtle influence of logical positivism upon a set of anti-foundationalist attitudes in literary theory. Though the opponents of theory often take pragmatism as an anti-foundationalist attitude that argues for either nihilism or relativism, this work presents an overview of the classical pragmatists to redeem pragmatism from such appropriations. The alternative proposal, in turn, links pragmatism with an ontology that cannot be separated from the questions of epistemology and ethics with the argument that reality is always a result of inquiry. With such an agential emphasis, the dissertation provides a pragmatic reading of Eliot’s concept of ‘objective correlative’ to propose ‘correlative objects’ as the objects of interpretation. This concept allows the proposed ontology, Correlative Object Ontology (COO), to replace the role of authorship in the fixation of meaning with an ethical aspect that puts democratic inquiry, interpretability, and translatability at the center of current discussions on world literature. Hence, COO proposes a pragmatic theory of literature that not only avoids the dichotomy between fact and value but also maintains that the inherently normative quality of each and every interpretation gives rise to a democratic imperative for a theory of literature that is intellectual in Edward Said’s sense, “skeptical, engaged, [and] unremittingly devoted to rational investigation and moral judgment” (Representations 20).